Multi-catheter flexible robotic system for minimally invasive surgery
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current surgical robots have a large footprint, making them impractical for use in crowded operating rooms and limiting their ability to perform minimally invasive procedures in tight spaces, while also lacking the dexterity and flexibility of human surgical instruments.
Innovation Solution
A steerable catheter robotic system with a multicatheter subsystem featuring flexible multi-lumen assemblies and articulating robotic instruments, allowing for independent teleoperation and control of multiple instruments with high degrees of freedom, including a camera and grasping forceps, to achieve precise manipulation and dexterity in confined anatomical spaces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If traditional rigid surgical robots are used, then surgical precision can be achieved, but the device footprint becomes too large for crowded operating rooms and tight anatomical spaces
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs flexible catheter-based robotic instruments with multi-lumen assemblies that can navigate through small incisions and tight anatomical spaces. The flexible sheath and articulating segments allow the system to access previously unreachable anatomy while maintaining a small external footprint, resolving the contradiction between precision and device size.
Solution Approach 2:
The robotic instrument is divided into multiple articulating segments that can independently articulate and bend. Each segment contains its own multi-lumen assembly for independent control, allowing the instrument to navigate complex anatomical pathways while maintaining overall structural precision for surgical tasks.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple robotic instruments are used for complex surgical procedures, then surgical capability and dexterity are improved, but system complexity and difficulty of control increase
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple robotic instruments share a common control system and teleoperation interface. The system integrates control of multiple articulating segments across different instruments through a unified control architecture, allowing complex surgical tasks to be performed while simplifying the operator interface and reducing overall system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The multi-lumen assembly design allows a single catheter platform to support multiple different surgical instruments and configurations. The universal control system can adapt to different instrument combinations, providing versatile surgical capability without requiring separate complex control systems for each instrument type.
3Length of moving object
If flexible catheter-based instruments are used to access tight spaces, then minimally invasive access is achieved, but instrument dexterity and control precision are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The catheter is divided into multiple articulating segments with independent control capabilities. Each segment can articulate independently to provide dexterity and precision control while maintaining overall flexibility for navigating tight spaces and accessing difficult anatomical locations.
Solution Approach 2:
The robotic instrument features dynamically controllable articulation at each segment, allowing the operator to adjust the flexibility and rigidity characteristics in real-time. This enables the instrument to be flexible when navigating anatomy but rigid when performing precise surgical maneuvers, resolving the contradiction between flexibility and dexterity.
Data Source
AI summary
A multicatheter subsystem is provided for a steerable catheter robotic system. The subsystem includes a flexible output sheath, a plurality of flexible multi-lumen assemblies and a plurality of robotic instruments for performing a surgical procedure. The plurality of flexible multi-lumen assemblies extends through the outer sheath. Each of the multi-lumen assemblies has a proximal end and a distal end. Each of the robotic instruments is operatively and removably attachable to the distal end of one of the multi-lumen assemblies such that each instrument is teleoperable independently of every other robotic instrument. At least a first of the robotic instruments includes a plurality of interconnected articulating segments. Each of the articulating segments is operatively and removably attachable to a different one of the multi-lumen assemblies.